


Collapsing Castles

by TatteredTeddy



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Before RE1, Cryptic Motherfucker Wesker, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TatteredTeddy/pseuds/TatteredTeddy
Summary: S.T.A.R.S Captain Albert Wesker needs to take a road trip. He invites his girlfriend along with him. Surely nothing unusual will happen.
Relationships: Albert Wesker/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Collapsing Castles

“Kali, dear?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“I’ll be going on a bit of a road trip this weekend and I was hoping you’d join me.”  
  
“...A road trip?”  
  
It’s not that I don’t like the idea of taking a road trip with Albert. He and I have been together for a while. It’s just that he’s never shown any interest in long car rides for any purpose, and my stance on road trips has always been a solid neutral. It just doesn’t seem like the type of couples vacation we’d take.  
  
“Well, it’s not exactly a road trip,” my boyfriend corrects himself. “I have some important business to attend to, and I figured you could come along and we could make a vacation of it.”  
  
Now, that makes more sense. If he’d told me that, I would’ve said yes right away. “Oh, yeah, of course! Where would we be going?”  
  
“We’ll be staying at a hotel overlooking the Arklay Mountains. It’ll be quite nice, I’m sure you’ll like it there.” He pats my head in a way that some might find condescending, but I know it’s done affectionately. He shows his affection in strange ways sometimes.  
  
“Oh, that sounds nice. I haven’t been out to the mountains since Kevin took me camping in, like... middle school.”  
  
“It’ll be a nice getaway for—“  
  
His train of thought is abruptly cut off by his phone ringing. “I’m sorry, I have to take this,” he says, his perpetually calm tone only barely hiding the alarm in his voice. “I believe it’s my coworker. He’s the only person who’d call this late outside of an emergency.”  
  
I silently follow him as he leaves the room, curious as to what’s going on that would warrant a call from a coworker when he’s off work. From what little I can hear, the conversation sounds somewhat suspicious. Albert rarely acts suspicious at all. This is a shocking change in the attitude I’ve seen from him in all the time we’ve been together.  
  
“...Yes. She’ll be coming with me to the mansion this weekend. I’ll be sure to show her around. ...I only waited because I figured this would be the right time to tell her. I trust her.  
  
...No, not with S.T.A.R.S, necessarily, but her brother is an RPD officer. … Yes, Officer Kevin Ryman. He’s not a part of the plan. He’s too incompetent to fully comprehend the scope of my research. But Kali is a smart little thing, so she’ll understand.”  
  
My eyes widen in shock and I lean into the doorway. He’s talking about me and my brother? And what “research” is this?  
  
“...Of course I have a plan, but I don’t believe I’ll have to use it. She’s a very good girl, she’d follow my every move if I asked her to. ...Don’t doubt her so quickly. I have a perfectly lovely sidekick right here. Maybe even a future wife, if we’re being honest.”  
  
I cover my mouth so not to audibly gasp and get caught eavesdropping. Future wife? The thought fills me with an unimaginable anticipation. I could just picture him down on one knee, presenting me a ring... but I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. My first priority should be to get to the bottom of whatever shady business he’s in on.  
  
“Yes, I will be there by tomorrow night. Give my best wishes to Annette. Goodbye.”  
  
I step back from the doorway so that when Albert comes back in, he wouldn’t suspect that I was listening into his conversation. He doesn’t seem to notice my curiosity, or he may just take it as me being my typical lovestruck self.  
  
“I’m ready to go to bed,” I mumble. “You look like you need some sleep.”  
  
“I certainly do. I’ll never understand why he feels the need to call at such inconvenient times.”  
  
“Yeah, coworkers can be a pain sometimes. So when are we leaving for this road trip…?”  
  
“Tomorrow afternoon. Packing will be light, don’t you worry. You won’t have much of anything to do, so you can just get comfortable in the hotel room and be as spoiled as a queen.” He smirks down at me and my sleepy face. “I may bring back some souvenirs too.”  
  
“Souvenirs?” I raise an eyebrow in curiosity. Given the contents of that phone call, I can tell this business trip isn’t exactly a meeting in a high-rise, so I’m not sure what kind of souvenirs he could possibly be planning to bring back. “I’m curious, but something tells me I shouldn’t ask.”  
  
“Maybe not asking is for the best in this situation.”  
  
“If you say so.”  
  
♡♡♡♡  
  
The next day, we’ve only just arrived at the hotel and set our bags down when Albert snaps right back into business mode. “Come, I have something very important to show you,” he orders the moment I sit down on the bed to get a feel for the room. “I’ve been meaning to tell you the truth for a while.”  
  
“The truth…?” This is even more sudden than the news of the road trip. Is this about his “research”? That stuff he told his coworker on the phone that he’s only trusting me to understand? “About what?”  
  
“About my work.”  
  
“What about your work? Is this separate from S.T.A.R.S?” My eyes shift towards the door. “You… won’t do anything to hurt me, will you?”  
  
He leans down and cups my cheek in his hand. “I would never hurt you, my dear. I just want everything to be out on the table. I don’t want to hide anything from you now that we’re committed to each other. Now let’s go, it’ll just be a short drive to our destination.”  
  
I stand up from my seat on the foot of the bed and nod my head in understanding. I guess he’s right, secrets can be bad for a long-term relationship. “Where are we going?”  
  
“We’ll be paying a visit to the old Spencer estate. My team and I have been doing some very important research there.”  
  
“Was that what that call was about last night…?” I ask.  
  
“Yes, it was. One of my team members wanted me to stop by the mansion and I informed him that I’ll be bringing you along. I think you should see what I’ve been working on.”  
  
Albert leads me out of our hotel room and back out of the building to the car. He’s silent and looks deep in thought the whole way, his hand wrapping tightly around mine like he never wants to let go. He only speaks again when we’re in the car and the doors are closed.  
  
“You look scared. Are you?”  
  
I quickly nod my head. “A little. Going out to an old mansion in the dark… sounds like the plot to a horror movie.”  
  
“Oh, dear, you shouldn’t be scared of an old mansion.” His voice suddenly drops to a low whisper. “Only S.T.A.R.S should be.”  
  
“S.T.A.R.S? What do they have to do with all this…?”  
  
“You’ll see very soon, my love. You’ll see.”  
  
His ominous tone raises a million more questions in my head. What is he planning with them? Does he want them dead? Is he going to kill them in this mansion? He doesn’t seem like a killer. If the plan is to murder them all, then what is this “research”? Will he do something with their bodies? Will he use them as human experiments? I don’t even want to think about my love doing something like that. I feel my body begin to shake with fear, but I just shove my hands in my pockets to hide it and fix my gaze on the window.  
  
Eventually, we pull up in front of a dilapidated mansion, shrouded in tall trees and only illuminated by the smallest wisps of moonlight reaching in toward us. Albert gets out of the car, and upon noticing I haven’t moved yet, comes around and opens the door for me. “Let’s go inside. I have something very important to show you.”  
  
“This is… the right place? It looks so worn-down…”  
  
“You know I wouldn’t get us this lost. Come on.”  
  
I slowly get out of the car and look around. “I’m sure this place was beautiful before… whatever happened here.” My voice trembles just as much as my body.  
  
“It’s still quite nice inside. That’s where we’ll be going.”  
  
He flips on a flashlight with one hand and takes my hand with the other. As he leads me through the heavy double doors and into the mansion, I feel a chill rush down my spine. I’m not sure if it’s from fear or just the cold air inside the grand foyer. “Don’t be afraid, dear. I can show you around, after we make a stop in the basement.”  
  
“The basement? I wouldn’t trust the safety of a basement in a house this old…”  
  
“Oh, we’ve kept it up well. Come along.”  
  
He leads me through the foyer, our footsteps echoing off the polished marble floors down to a door sitting open to reveal a small staircase. He points his flashlight down the stairs and steps down in front of me, leading me down a flight of stairs that seems to extend longer and longer before us until we’re finally taken into the dark basement.  
  
What we find in the basement is not a worn-down hole full of rotten wood and old furniture. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. A state-of-the-art research laboratory has been built underneath the mansion. The whole room is bathed in a dim bluish light, and giant test tube-like cylinders stand from the floor to the ceiling, with unidentifiable life forms floating inside them in some sort of clear liquid.  
  
“What is this…?” I whisper. “Is this all yours?”  
  
“It’s all mine, my dear.” His voice suddenly sounds different. More… sinister. “No… all ours. Of course, I won’t make you trouble yourself with any of this. The queen should not have to take over her king’s duties.”  
  
“What… what do you mean by that? What are you studying in here?” I slowly approach one of the test chambers. My hand shakes as I put it up against the cold glass. “What are all these things?”  
  
Albert slips up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. “I’m studying bio-organic weapons. I’ll be using S.T.A.R.S as my test subjects. It’ll be quite the easy task, seeing as though they’re as easy to lead as a bunch of lemmings… and then, when that’s all over, I’ll return to you at the hotel, and I’ll sleep well that night knowing my great mission is complete.”  
  
For a moment, the only sound that passes between us is the soft whoosh of the computers running in the background. I didn’t realize he was studying bioweapons, or anything at all beside his oblivious S.T.A.R.S coworkers’ shenanigans. And I know the implication behind his plan is that all or most of them will end up dead. People I knew well, the cast of lovable characters I met in the halls each time I slipped into Albert’s office with an “important message”, would be dead on the floor here within a couple of days. This isn’t just some senseless killing. This isn’t just an act out of a movie. This is human experimentation, creating weapons from people I shared a tiny part of my life with.  
  
But I still love him.  
  
I can’t tear myself away from him. I can’t run. I can’t scream. I can’t fight back. I don’t want to break away from him for a second. His arms around me, his broad shoulders shielding me, his heart pounding as he awaits my response to his grand revelation… this is my home. This is my castle, not the mansion or the lab… he is. I feel the rise and fall of his chest with each breath. The silence gets heavier each second, weighing down on me and threatening to crush the air from my lungs. I may be scared… but I love him. I love Albert, with all my heart. I can’t let him go, and he can’t let me go either.  
  
The silence hurts us too much. My heart threatens to beat out of my chest. I need to speak now.  
  
“...Of course.” I turn around to face him and lean in so my head is resting on his chest. He radiates warmth, and the slow rising and falling of his chest doesn’t feel like a crushing pressure anymore, but instead, a comforting rhythm like a cradle slowly rocking a baby to sleep.  
  
“I’m surprised you didn’t run away in fear. You’re too… good for this line of work. I feared you would run away and go straight to the authorities the moment you saw the truth.” He runs his hand through my hair as he speaks. The big reveal hasn’t changed his behavior toward me. He’s still just as gentle with me as he’s always been.  
  
“Is this what you were talking to your coworker about last night? Showing me this place…?”  
  
“Yes, it was. How did you know?”  
  
“You’re not as quiet on the phone as you think.” I look up at him with a shaky, half-forced smile. “I heard most of what you said.”  
  
He lets me go from his embrace, but he doesn’t seem angry or anything. Just a bit surprised. He likely didn’t intend for me to hear his comment about wanting to marry me. “Yes, I was speaking with the chief researcher. You remember my friend, William?”  
  
“Yeah. I remember you mentioned him being some kind of researcher at Umbrella. Have you worked with him the whole time?”  
  
“Yes, we’ve both been with Umbrella for quite a while. He knew of my plan to tell you the truth, but he had his doubts. I had to reassure him that I trust you more than anyone in the world with this information.”  
  
“I’m just glad you trust me so much. I promise I won’t tell anyone anything about this.” I smile up at him, hoping he can’t see that I’m still shaking. “This is all so much to take in. I can’t even imagine how much work went into this.”  
  
“Quite a lot of work. This was not all my work in the beginning… but now, it all belongs to me. To us. All of this belongs to you just as much as to me.”  
  
“I love you…” I whisper. “This is all… it’s a lot to take in, but I’m just… I’m glad we’ll be safe. A-And that you trust me so much.” I feel tears sting my eyes and I squeeze my eyes shut for a second. “This is still a lot to process. I’m not… scared of you or anything, don’t worry. I just didn’t expect any of this. It’s… a bit overwhelming.”  
  
“That’s alright with me, dear. You take all the time you need to process this. You’ve just been given your crown and all our kingdom’s riches. Any newly coronated queen would be overwhelmed.”  
  
“We’ll be okay… right? I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t know what… what I’d do without you.” I look down to the floor and shift my weight back and forth.  
  
“I would never allow anything to take me away from you. You’re mine, and nothing in this world can get in the way of our fate.” His voice turns almost angry, as if a switch flipped inside him. “Not even death can tear us apart… but I won’t let the afterlife take me from you. I know you need me.”  
  
“I do… I need you. I always have.” I sniffle and blink back the tears that I can feel welling up in my eyes. “I need you… s-so much.” A tear spills onto my cheek, and he reaches out to me and gently wipes it away. I can tell behind those sunglasses of his that his expression softens.  
  
“Why don’t you take those sunglasses off… since we’re alone in here?” I ask. “I… I like seeing your eyes.”  
  
He pauses for a second to think it over, and then removes his sunglasses, folding them up and putting them onto the neck of his shirt. His eyes are a lovely bluish-gray color, like the sky after a storm when the clouds are drifting away. He usually only removes his sunglasses when we’re at home and it’s just the two of us, but it’s like he just said: this is our place now too.  
  
The tears continue to roll down my cheeks, and Albert’s expression turns somewhat dejected. “I’m… I’m sorry,” I whimper. “I can’t help it. I can’t stop them.”  
  
“There’s no need to apologize. It’s my job to dry your tears away.” He swipes his thumb over my cheek again, drying my tears from my face. “It’s a very important job, just as much so as my research.”  
  
As his hand settles on my cheek and his cold silvery eyes fixate on me, I can’t help but smile a bit. Even if he’s the most stone-faced person I’ve ever seen, he always knows just how to make me feel better. “Didn’t you… say you’d show me around?” I ask, my voice hushed so not to disturb the pure quiet that surrounds us.  
  
“Of course. I would never break a promise I made to you.” He sweeps me up off the ground, holding me tightly bridal style. “Let’s take a look around. Let me know where you’d like me to take you.”  
  
“O-Oh, I don’t know… if this place isn’t being used anymore, maybe the master bedroom might have a blanket we could take with us…?”  
  
“You do look exhausted, my angel. A blanket would be good for you.” He smiles down at me as he carries me out of the basement and back into the main hall. He seems to know his way around the mansion quite well, making a beeline for the master bedroom while I look around with pure wonder in my eyes. “I can tell you’ve never been inside a place like this before,” he comments.  
  
“N-No… I haven’t. It’s beautiful, in a kind of scary way.”  
  
We enter a set of wide-open double doors, leading into a master bedroom that’s bigger than any room I think I’ve ever seen. The bed is draped in a deep red satin comforter that seems to be tempting me to curl up on top of it. “Can I go down on the bed?” I ask.  
  
“Of course, dear.” Albert carries me over to the bed, where he gently sets me down as if I’m a fragile, breakable object. The comforter feels just as soft as it looks. I could just fall asleep right here. “Rest a minute, I’d like to take a look around.”  
  
I sleepily watch him cross the room again and open the door to the walk-in closet. I can’t see much of what’s inside, but I can see Albert rifling through the clothing and pulling what looks like a pale pink silk dress off of a hanger. He drapes it over his arm until he’s flipped through everything he found interesting. He turns back to me and starts to lift the dress and hold it up to show me, but he stops when he sees my eyes fluttering closed and then struggling to open again. “You look tired… is the bed comfortable?”  
  
“Y-Yeah… it’s really soft and squishy. What’s that dress…?” I lift myself up and sit up on the edge of the bed.  
  
“It must have belonged to a former heiress of the Spencer bloodline. It looks like it would fit you well. What a coincidence… seeing as though you too will be the heiress of our own little fortune.”  
  
“Could I… try it on?” I ask.  
  
“Of course, that’s why I gave it to you.”  
  
I stand up, wobbling from fatigue before getting my balance, and go into the corner of the room to change. I can almost feel Albert watching me as I change into the dress, but I don’t mind. I trust him to handle that sort of thing in a mature way. As I slip on the dress, it feels like it’s been mine all along. It fits me perfectly. “Can you zip this up for me?” I ask over my shoulder.  
I feel him come up behind me, and one hand rests on my waist while the other zips up the dress. It doesn’t feel too tight after it’s zipped, which is a huge relief. I turn around and tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, and Albert gasps and steps back, his eyes widening with what I can only identify as amazement. I can’t quite understand how someone could be so amazed by me, especially if that someone is as handsome as he is, but I know what kind of look that is.  
  
“Look in the mirror, dear heart. You should see this for yourself.” His hand returns to my waist and he guides me toward a full-length mirror framed in shimmering gold.  
My figure appears in the mirror, wrapped in soft pink silk. The dress seems to transform everything about me: my sleepy expression looks dreamy, my smudged mascara appearing as a dark and mysterious shadow around my eyes. Albert’s hands settle on my hips, and he kisses the back of my neck. “You’re beautiful,” he whispers, his breath on my bare skin sending a shiver down my body.  
  
“Can I take this with me…? I assume no one would notice if this place has been abandoned.”  
  
“It’s all yours. It was meant for you all along, can’t you tell? This just happened to be the perfect moment for it to find its way into your life… like you did to me.”  
  
“Then I’ll keep it. For special occasions. Could you… unzip this for me so I can change back?”  
  
“I would love to, dear.” I can see him behind me in the mirror, as he unzips the dress and traces his fingertips down the bare skin on my back. The soft touch sends a shiver up my spine. He leans down and presses a kiss between my shoulder blades, and the chill fades away in favor of a flush of warmth to my cheeks. I dart back to the corner to change into the clothes I came here in, making sure to fold the dress neatly and set it on the nightstand without causing a single wrinkle in the delicate material.  
  
“What if we slept here tonight…?” I suggest. I’m not sure where the idea came from. It was completely out of the blue. “The bedsheets in here are soft, and the bed is really big and comfy… it’s not like we’d be trespassing any more than whatever we must already be doing. We have time before your mission with S.T.A.R.S, don’t we?” I run my hand through my hair and turn back around to see a slight smile cross Albert’s face as he considers my idea.  
  
“I have more than enough time for you,” he says after a few seconds of thinking it over. “I’m sure we can find you a comfortable nightgown in this closet.”  
  
“I bet we can too. But I’m not all that worried about pajamas. I’m just so sleepy.” I pull back the covers and climb into bed. The mattress is soft underneath me, and the comforter is a bit heavy, but it feels relaxing, like it’s lulling me to sleep underneath it. The satin bedsheets are unlike anything I’ve felt before. Whatever luxurious life had been playing out here before we came seems to have been preserved perfectly in this corner of the house, Not even a speck of dust floats into the air as I roll over to see Albert unbuttoning his shirt and setting it aside before getting into bed beside me. He drapes a muscular arm over me and pulls me in closer, and as I settle in right beside him, I rest my head on his chest.  
  
I can feel his heartbeat again, just like I did when we were down in the laboratory, but something feels different now. The dark spirit that seemed to consume him before has drifted off, leaving me with the same Albert I know and love as we curl up together. In the lab, he was possessed by his great desire to watch S.T.A.R.S fall, to make me his queen and this mansion our castle. Now, the king and queen are asleep in the castle, curled up against each other, wrapped in a cocoon of soft sheets. The kingdom is at peace, and maybe this peace is the last it will have for a while. But we know in our hearts that we can make our own, when my darling comes back from his mission and strips away his bloodstained clothing for a pair of warm pajamas and we curl up in bed together once again.


End file.
